Desolate Era

by RWX

  As Ning saw it, once he pulled out the copper pillar, he would be able to use his divine sense to investigate the enormous hole that would be left behind.

  “Eh?” Ning suddenly frowned. He could sense a spatial ripple, an extremely powerful spatial ripple.

  “Greater Teleportation.” Ning immediately recognized it.

  Just a few dozen kilmeters away from Ning, amidst the earth and rubble, Celestial Immortals Infatuation, Deadwood, Flamefish, and the other two all simultaneously appeared. They were all utterly enraged. Around them circled that enormous five-colored mountain peak, and with a boom, they quickly began to charge towards Ning, the five-colored mountain peak crushing through all obstacles before them.

  Just as they got close to Ning…

  “Attack!” Celestial Immortal Infatuation gave the order. Whoosh whoosh whoosh…instantly, the five enormous chains shot out like Flood Dragons, tearing through all obstacles as they swept towards Ji Ning, who was still pulling at the fiery copper pillar.

  “Hmph.” Ning just smirked. “Three Heads, Six Arms! Thousandbull Sword, let the Nightriver emerge!”

  Instantly, two more arms grew out from Ning’s body, to join the two arms that were being used to pull at the copper pillar. The Thousandbull Sword appeared above his head as well, and the awe-inspiring Nightriver also emerged. The Nightriver instantly and completely submerged everything nearby, causing the five dragon-like chains to seem to have become mired in quicksand. At the same time, Ning’s four arms demonstrated tremendous power as he completely suppressed the assaults of the chains.

  “Kill him!”

  “Stop him!”

  The five Celestial Immortals, upon seeing that the Shaoyin Demontamer Formation wasn’t powerful enough, temporarily gave up that idea for now. After all, their current goal wasn’t to trap him; it was to prevent him from pulling out the pillar! Thus, they all used various spells, magic treasures, and other abilities to that effect.

  One tendril after another appeared, slithering towards Ning like giant serpents!

  An enormous fiery phoenix appeared, charging towards Ning.

  A golden greatclock appeared in midair, ringing out and sending waves of power towards Ning.

  “Is that all you have?”

  Ning completely ignored these attacks; in fact, he actually grew even more excited. “As soon as I started tugging at this copper pillar, those five Celestial Immortals immediately teleported over here. They were clearly trapped within the formation; how did they know that I was here pulling the pillar? This pillar must be covered with various seals, runes, and restrictive spells, causing them to immediately know about this.”

  “For them to attack me in such a berserk manner shows that they are truly unwilling for the copper pillar to be uprooted,” Ning guessed to himself.

  The more his enemies feared an action, the more insistent he could be on carrying it out!

  Many magic spells and treasures flew towards Ning, but Ning allowed all of the attacks to land on his body.

  Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The surrounding earth and rocks were all blasted apart as a wave of power spread out towards every direction. Everything within a thousand kilometers was instantly transformed into ash, while the ground within ten thousand kilometers began to crack and shatter. In fact, the cracks spread all the way from the underground area to the surface, forming an enormously deep gorge that was nearly ten thousand kilometers deep! The earth and rocks here were quite ordinary, after all; how could they withstand the frenzied attacks of five mighty Celestial Immortals?

  This was the power of Celestial Immortals!

  Just the collateral damage from a battle between the five Celestial Immortals and Ji Ning would generate a gorge that was ten thousand kilometers deep!

  Ning, however, just let the attacks land; he even allowed those vines to coil around his body. Ning felt nothing but disdain for it all!

  His body now had the power of the Fifth Cycle of the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art]; these attacks did nothing but tickle him! If he wasn’t currently holding onto that copper pillar, then he’d have to spend some of his energy in dealing with the vines and ripping them apart. Even before Ning made his breakthrough, he was capable of breaking apart those vines, to say nothing of now, when his strength had vastly increased.

  And since he actually WAS holding onto the copper pillar…if they wanted to pull them away, they’d have to pull the copper pillar away along with him!

  “Get in here!” Patriarch Goldclock let out an angry roar. The golden greatclock was giving birth to unearthly ripples of attractive power, attempting to draw Ning inside it.

  Ning, however, just tightly clutched the copper pillar, continuing to pull ilt upwards!

  You want to pull me away? Then you’ll have to pull out the copper pillar along with me! The attractive power of the golden clock actually just slightly hastened the rate at which the copper pillar was being pulled out.

  “I can’t stop him.”

  “He’s completely ignoring our attacks. He’s even able to ignore the vines! All of his attention is focused on pulling out the copper pillar.” Celestial Immortal Goldclock sent frantically, “What should we do?!”

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The copper pillar was still being pulled up at a fast, rhythmic pace. With each pull, another six hundred meters of it was pulled out. Ning’s pulling speed was incredibly fast; in just this short exchange of attacks, Ning had already pulled out another thirty thousand meters. But this pillar was simply too enormously long!

  “Don’t attack him,” Celestial Immortal hurriedly ordered mentally. “Let’s bind the pillar. Let’s attack the pillar and use all our might to prevent it from going up any further.”

  “Alright.”

  “Right, we only need to stop the copper pillar from being pulled out.”

  Earlier, the Celestial Immortals had been in a panic; upon seeing Ning rapidly pull out the copper pillar, they had only thought to attack him. They had forgotten that preventing the pillar from coming out would serve the same effect.

  The five Celestial Immortals now completely ignored Ning as they hurriedly flew towards the top of the copper pillar. They wanted to use a spatial teleportation to go there faster, but the surrounding area, within the range of Ning’s divine sense, had long ago been completely spacelocked. They had no choice but to fly upwards, but flying didn’t take significantly more time than using a Greater Teleportation.

  In that tiny bit of extra time, however…Ning was able to pull out another thirty thousand meters of the pillar. This copper pillar was simply too massive; before he had started to pull, Ning had already seen three thousand kilometers of it!

  “STOP!” Celestial Immortal Deadwood unleashed his many vines, which rapidly began to wrap around the copper pillar, generating an astonishing repulsive force.

  “STOP!” Celestial Immortal Goldclock controlled his divine greatclock, sending waves of power smashing downwards on the very top of the copper pillar.

  “STOP!” Celestial Immortals Flamefish, Infatuation, and Sunfish all wildly launched attacks against the top of the tower, seeking to press it downwards.

  “Hahaha…” Although Ning could sense the waves of pressure slamming down from above, he began to laugh even more happily. This was because, now that the five Celestial Immortals were no longer attacking him, all six of Ning’s arms were temporarily freed up to focus on uprooting the copper pillar.

  Ning’s physical strength was simply too enormous. With six arms pulling together at the same time…not even the combined efforts of the five Celestial Immortals were able to keep the pillar down.

  In the blink of an eye, Ning had pulled out yet another thirty thousand meters.

  Thud! Thud! Thud! The fiery stone wall beneath Ning’s feet actually began to rumble and shudder, as though something was slamming against it. At the same time, the countless runes that were covering the fiery stone wall began to flicker and flash.

  “Not good. Ji Ning has pulle
d out too much of the copper pillar; the suppressive runes are beginning to destabilize.” Celestial Immortal Infatuation and the other four Celestial Immortals began to grow frantic.

  “This Ji Ning’s strength is too great; the five of us are actually unable to suppress him.”

  In terms of raw strength…once the Fourth Cycle of the [Starseizing Hand] was completely unleashed, Ning’s raw physical strength vastly outstretched the strength of the five Celestial Immortals.

  In terms of comparing magic treasures…Ning’s six hands were comparable to supreme Pure Yang treasures.

  How could the five of them possibly suppress the pillar?

  “What should we do? If this continues, there will be a huge problem.” Celestial Immortal Goldclock was beginning to panic.

  “Hahaha, I knew something was strange here. The more afraid you are, the more I want to pull this thing out.” Upon seeing the countless runes flashing and flickering atop the enormous fiery stone wall beneath his feet, and upon hearing the series of thudding sounds, Ning grew even more eager to see what would happen.

  “Eh?” Suddenly, all five of the Celestial Immortals, as well as the pillar-uprooting Ji Ning, could sense a spatial ripple come from up above them.

  It was Greater Teleportation!

  “The Ancestor has arrived.” The five Celestial Immortals revealed looks of delight and joy.

  * * *

  Book 15, Chapter 27 - The Youngflame Clans Founder

  Four figures appeared in the air above the deep gorge within the Oldjade mountain range. The leader was a golden-robed man with a single horn, whose gaze was as cold as icy water. Behind him stood three other figures; a bald, black-robed man named Celestial Immortal Blackrain, a golden-haired woman named Celestial Immortal Goldcloud, and Celestial Immortal Arcanum.

  The three mighty Celestial Immortals were all obediently following behind this individual.

  “Who is that horned man?”

  “Isn’t that Patriarch Arcanum? Why is Patriarch Arcanum following behind that man so respectfully? The two who are standing next to Patriarch Arcanum are also acting with great respect, and their auras seem to be very great as well; they should also be at the Celestial Immortal level.”

  The Loose Immortals of the Youngflame clan, hidden away and watching from within their distant formations, were all rather dazed.

  They had just seen five Celestial Immortals appear. And now…they saw four more!

  They recognized Patriarch Arcanum; he had an extremely exalted status within the Youngflame clan, and generally speaking they would be able to occasionally interact with him in some manner. Right now, however, Patriarch Arcanum was obediently standing behind the horned man, and the two other Celestial Immortals with him were doing the same. This caused all sorts of speculations to run rampant through their minds.

  “Can it be that this horned man is the true, actual supreme power of our Youngflame clan?”

  “There were five Celestial Immortals earlier; now, four more have appeared. Can it be that our Youngflame clan actually has nine Celestial Immortals? We’re actually this powerful!? Or perhaps the horned man isn’t a Celestial Immortal; is he one of those legendary Empyrean Gods or True Immortals?”

  All sorts of thoughts and speculations flashed through their minds, causing these Loose Immortals and Earth Immortals of the Youngflame clan who were watching to feel extremely nervous.

  ……

  The horned, golden-robed man and the three Celestial Immortals with him stared downwards. They were able to see that fiery copper pillar located at the bottom of the deep gorge. Next to the pillar were five Celestial Immortals who were assaulting it, trying to slow it down. At the very bottom of the pillar…there was a nine hundred meter tall Ji Ning who was using six arms to tug at the pillar, wildly trying to uproot it.

  “Damn him, he’s moving my furnace.” The horned, golden-robed man’s face was sinister. “All of you, attack to suppress and press down the copper pillar.”

  “Yes.”

  The three Celestial Immortals under his command, Goldcloud, Blackrain, and Arcanum, simultaneously assented and began to fly downwards.

  As for the horned, golden-robed man, he opened his mouth.

  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

  Three tiny black dots flew out, and as they did, they immediately expanded. Instantly, they transformed into a trio of terrifying aberrations that were more than thirty thousand meters long. One of them was the armored insect aberration that had sixteen knife-like legs. A second looked like a gigantic rhinoceros that had unbelievably thick skin…but on its back it had a total of twelve pairs of wings. The final creature was a viper whose body was covered with circles of black tattoos. The tattoos were extremely beautiful, and at the head of the viper, they actually came together to form the tattoo of a crown.

  The horned, golden-robed man was seated atop the back of the winged rhinoceros, and he directed the three massive aberrations to move downwards, as fast as lightning.

  THUD! THUD! THUD! A series of massive thudding sounds could be heard from deep within the fiery stone wall.

  Ning continued to focus all his efforts on pulling up that giant copper pillar. The giant copper pillar rose up rapidly, and the more of it Ning pulled out, the more brilliant became the glow of the countless runes that had appeared on the fiery stone wall beneath Ning’s feet. However, they were also beginning to flicker…and the thudding sounds began to speed up as well.

  “Eh?” As Ning pulled upwards, Ning suddenly had the feeling as though deep below this enormous copper pillar, on the other side of the massive fiery stone wall, a power was beginning to awaken and grow stronger. It was as though some sort of terrifying behemoth was struggling to push up the pillar, attempting to shove it higher!

  The more Ning pulled out, the more power began to gather in the deepest depths, helping push the pillar upwards nonstop. This made it easier and easier for Ning to pull it out.

  “Don’t act against Ji Ning. It’s useless.” Celestial Immortal Infatuation, upon seeing Celestial Immortal Arcanum and the other two arrive, instantly sent a frantic mental message to them. “Ji Ning has the [Eight-Nine Arcane Art] protecting him; we’re completely unable to wound him. He also has a deathgrip around the copper pillar; we’re completely unable to dislodge him. What we need to do right now is to stop that copper pillar from rising up.”

  “Right.” The three Celestial Immortals who had arrived all understood this right away. They all each began to use their own techniques to push downwards at the massive copper pillar.

  ……

  “Eh?” The enormous six-armed Ning, nine hundred meters tall and located more than three thousand kilometers away from those eight Celestial Immortals, raised his head to give them a glance. Ning’s twin eyes were blazing with torch-light, and he was able to see everything with perfect clarity. He saw Celestial Immortal Arcanum and the other two join the fray as well, and also saw those three terrifying aberrations fly downwards, as well as that horned, golden-robed individual seated atop the back of the flying rhinoceros.

  “More and more are coming.” Ning cracked his lips wide with a grin. “This Youngflame clan really is quite powerful. An ancient clan that ranks as one of the top ten of the Grand Xia Dynasty…it really is quite extraordinary. It seems I’ve really kicked over the hornet’s nest this time. The Youngflame clan is starting to panic.”

  Indeed; to the Youngflame clan, ordinary clansmen would die out and be replaced every few centuries just through aging! To the clan, ordinary clansmen and ordinary cultivators weren’t that important; even if all of the people within the Oldjade mountain range perished, it would at most represent a loss of face for the clan. It wouldn’t actually affect their total power much; after all, they had two other headquarters! They could let the people in those two other headquarters replenish their losses and once more occupy the entire Oldjade mountain range.

  In addition, aside from their three main headquarters, the Youngflame clan also wa
s in command of many minor worlds. Their bloodline and their clan was spread extremely wide; there was no need for them to worry about their clan being wiped out.

  In truth…the Ancestor probably wouldn’t even be willing to come here, if it was simply a matter of the Oldjade mountain range being destroyed.

  But Ji Ning had made a move on the Infinity Furnace! This threatened one of the foundations of the Youngflame clan, and so even the Ancestor could no longer ignore it.

  “So what if there are eight Celestial Immortals here? They still can’t stop me.” Ning continued to quickly pull out the copper pillar. In truth, the suppressive power unleashed by the eight Celestial Immortals was extremely strong, but each time Ning pulled out more of the copper pillar, the power pushing upwards from below the pillar grew increasingly strong. In fact, the pushing power was almost comparable to Ning’s pulling power by now!

  Thus, Ning actually found it even easier now than he had before, despite the fact that eight Celestial Immortals had just joined forces.

  BOOM!

  The first of the three aberrations to fly downwards was that enormous armored insect. It completely wrapped its sixteen knife-legs around the fiery copper pillar! To this massive armored insect that was more than thirty thousand meters long, the fiery copper pillar, which was merely three hundred meters thick, was actually quite slender and thin. The terrifying strength of the armored insect caused Ning to actually sense the copper pillar sink down slightly!

  “This aberration has tremendous power; if I didn’t use [Three Heads, Six Arms], I would probably actually be weaker than it in terms of strength.” Ning couldn’t help but feel surprised as he looked at the armored insect.

  Whoosh!

  Next came the thirty thousand meter black serpent. It looped and coiled itself around the fiery copper pillar. Instantly, a second surge of power that was no weaker than that of the power of the armored insect came pressing down, causing Ning to feel that the pillar had grown even heavier.